Assofondipensione: the top 5 Engagement companies

Activities of the Engagement project of Assofondipensione, the association whose members include negotiated pension funds, promoted by collective bargaining, with a total value of accumulated savings exceeding €73 billion, kicked off in the second half of March. Assofondipensione also asked to collaborate with ET.Group to get detailed insights on the companies to engage, through the assessment ESG.ICI, the first ever to analyze the ESG Identity of corporations.

Download the official note here.

The goal of the project, the association explained in a note taken up by Ansa, is to open a positive and ongoing dialogue with companies around the world, of which member pension funds own stakes, to foster increasingly responsible and sustainable governance models in listed companies, generating a positive impact on both the community and the environment, and value in the long run.

The new project (which to date 20 negotiated pension funds have already joined) moves in coherence with and complements the association's Coordinated Voting project, which in 2024 led 13 negotiated pension funds to vote in 97 Italian and European company meetings for a total volume of 1,717 resolutions.

To identify the issues and companies with which to dialogue, Assofondipensione's presiding committee (composed of president Giovanni Maggi, vice president Ignazio Ganga, secretary Andrea Mariani and technical committee coordinator Riccardo Realfonzo) wanted to consult funds directly with the help of a questionnaire.

The issues that were found to be most sensitive are those related to setting climate goals; introducing corporate policies for sustainable water management and biodiversity protection; waste recycling; “just transition” and wage equity; occupational safety and vocational training; sustainability in the value chain; workforce stability; shareholder approval of the climate transition plan; gender equality; combating active and passive corruption; and national contract enforcement and contractual welfare.

The calendar of work for the first half of 2025 will see the Italian companies A2A, Ferrari, Generali, Intesa SanPaolo and Snam involved in Assofondipensione's engagement, having agreed to dialogue with Perseo Sirio, Fondo Gomma Plastica and Arco, Cometa, Byblos and Concreto, FondoPoste and Pegaso pension funds, respectively. Also starting in the spring will be training seminars on sustainability issues, for which leading Italian experts in the field will be involved, in addition to the advisor Nummus.Info (an expert in listed company assembly procedures). In the second part of 2025 several other companies will be involved in the dialogue with pension funds.